It has been known the use of apparatuses for preparing and instantly dispensing refrigerated products of the type of traditional water based slushes or alternatively creamy products such as ice-creams, sorbets, coffee creams and the like.
These known apparatuses are generally made up of a tank predisposed to contain the product to be prepared and dispensed, in which there are a cooling device for cooling the product to a suitable temperature and a mixing device for determining the continuous circulation of the product inside the tank. The mixing device, constituted for example by a screw member brought in rotation according to the longitudinal axis of the tank, is predisposed to convey the cooled product towards a front zone, in which a product dispensing device is placed. The dispensing device is provided with a shutter element which can be operated by an external lever member.
The cooling device is often made up of an evaporator coil arranged inside a tubular body, substantially cylindrical, arranged according to the horizontal axis of the tank. The evaporator is connected to a refrigeration system housed inside a base body on which the containment tank is mounted. The screw member of the mixing device is wound on the tubular body of the evaporator.
An apparatus for dispensing refrigerated products of this kind is disclosed for example in WO 03/082022.
A problem in the use of the above mentioned apparatuses is the need of controlling that the characteristics of the dispensed product remain constant, in particular with reference to solidity and temperature of the product.
In fact, when the level of the product inside the tank lowers, the refrigeration system tends to work longer, making the product too icy.
Moreover, a variation in the kind of product being prepared and/or of its characteristics, for example, a variation in the sugar content of the product (so called Degrees Brix) gives rise to problems in the correct managing of the apparatus and can cause preparation mistakes by the user.
The known solutions do not satisfyingly solve such exigency.